Eaten Alive

[antnield]

MEET THE MANIAC & HIS FRIEND.

Nearly a decade before he donned Freddy Kruger’s famous red and green sweater, horror icon Robert Englund delivered a supremely sleazy performance in Eaten Alive – another essay in taut Southern terror from Tobe Hooper, director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Deep in the Louisiana bayou sits the ramshackle Starlight Hotel, destination of choice for those who like to check in but not check out! Presided over by the bumbling, mumbling Judd (and his pet croc which he keeps in a large pond out front), the patron of this particular establishment may seem like a good-natured ol’ Southern gent – but he has a mean temper on him, and a mighty large scythe to boot…

Oozing atmosphere from its every pore (the entire film was shot on a sound-stage at the famous Raleigh Studios, which lends it a queasy, claustrophobic feel) Eaten Alive matches The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for sheer insanity – and even draughts in Chain Saw star Marilyn Burns as the terrorised woman-in-peril, alongside William Finley and Mel Ferrer.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

- Brand new 2K transfer from the original camera negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary with co-writer and producer Mardi Rustam, make-up artist Craig Reardon and stars Roberta Collins, William Finley and Kyle Richards
- New introduction to the film by director Tobe Hooper
- Brand new interview with Hooper
- My Name is Buck – Star Robert Englund discusses his acting career
- The Butcher of Elmendorf: The Legend of Joe Ball – The story of the South Texas bar owner on whom Eaten Alive is loosely based
- 5ive Minutes with Marilyn Burns – The star of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre talks about working on Eaten Alive
- The Gator Creator – archival interview with Hooper
- Original theatrical trailers for the film under its various titles Eaten Alive, Death Trap, Starlight Slaughter and Horror Hotel
- US TV and Radio Spots
- Alternate credits sequence
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film, illustrated with original archive stills and posters
- More to be announced!

Release date: July 27th

[What A Disgrace]

I've ordered the other Hooper films released by Arrow. How does it, and how do they, stack up?

[domino harvey]

I'm admittedly not a Hooper fan but it's a horrible, shrill movie, opening with an attempted anal rape and somehow actually moving downhill from there as more and more people shriek at each other for the duration of the film. Seriously one of the worst movie watching experiences I had during the Horror List, though films like this have a built-in cachet among Blu-ray buying audiences so I'm sure Arrow will clean up regardless

[Anthony Thorne]

I love Hooper's TEXAS and own the other Arrow Hooper titles but I remember very little of this one from my VHS viewing of it years earlier. It didn't strike me as either good or bad, just in-between with a slower pace than Hooper's earlier work. I could be completely wrong however as I'm now 43 and only watched this when I was a teen. Tarantino certainly stole the infamous line of dialogue from the opening (non-explicit) rape attempt for KILL BILL, but that's neither here nor there.

I hope nonetheless that Arrow makes a shit-ton of dough out of the release of it as it'll help them direct more cash towards my beloved Eurohorror, spaghetti westerns and Nikkatsu crime flicks.

[MichaelB]

DVD Drive-In:

Arrow Video USA delivers EATEN ALIVE on Blu-ray in a brand new 2K director approved restoration, presenting the film in 1080p HD in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is more than a revelation in contrast to the previous, comparatively murky video presentations we have seen before. The film has been cleaned up nicely, with scrumptious detail and deep, vivid colors which show off the moody, occasionally filtered lighting schemes. Fleshtones are so natural, it now makes the grayish skin of Miss Hatie stand out to the point where she looks inhuman, and delightfully so. The original camera negative used also allows for very few blemishes and there’s solid grain structure. A terrific presentation in every way, Arrow’s Blu-ray makes EATEN ALIVE resemble a surreal gory fairytale (with its soundstage sets all too obvious), while still retaining the grindhouse illusion in all its HD glory.

[MichaelB]

Beaver:

Certainly, this is the definitive package for Hooper's Crocodile-infused horror on the Bayou. Fans of the genre and director should be very pleased with this Blu-ray package that leaves no stone unturned in the extras department and a pure triumph for the audio/visual presentation. Absolutely recommended!

[nolanoe]

I have a question:

from my own experience (such as watching THE BEYOND in a cinema), the 35mm presentation of most "Grindhouse" (or schlocky horror) films actually looks very, very close to many a DVD released of it, both in terms of grain and color, not to mention "texture" and brightness.

I love the work Arrow and other labels do on those films - but is it actually the experience one gets when watching it in a cinema? Or are these films "too clean"?
Personally, the pleasure I derive from checking these out is that they look like PRISTINE BIG BUDGET movies now that the original negatives can easily get a good restoration. However, I feel they loose some of the "danger" associated with sitting down in a cinema and watching a darker, grainier, at times more surreal-color-coded film.

What do you guys think?

[MichaelB]

If you want the picture to look crappy, there are any number of tools that you can use at your end to facilitate this.

But I personally have no problem with the film looking as it did when the original cinematographer signed off on it.

[tenia]

The point of these restorations is to bring back the viewing to what it would be when looking at a projection of an undamaged fresh well-done print, while many older grindhouse movies might be projected through battered prints.
I dont mind a movie like Eaten Alive looking good but this has nothing to do with it looking too clean. It reminds me the discussion abouth the 4K resto of TCM. It looks good but it certainly doesnt look too good. It actually brings back how it should look in opposite to how we thought it should look based on decades of technically limited copies.

[Lost Highway]

I have a question:

from my own experience (such as watching THE BEYOND in a cinema), the 35mm presentation of most "Grindhouse" (or schlocky horror) films actually looks very, very close to many a DVD released of it, both in terms of grain and color, not to mention "texture" and brightness.

I love the work Arrow and other labels do on those films - but is it actually the experience one gets when watching it in a cinema? Or are these films "too clean"?
Personally, the pleasure I derive from checking these out is that they look like PRISTINE BIG BUDGET movies now that the original negatives can easily get a good restoration. However, I feel they loose some of the "danger" associated with sitting down in a cinema and watching a darker, grainier, at times more surreal-color-coded film.

What do you guys think?

It would be deeply condescending to artist who often went above and beyond with limited resources and it would be like presenting silent movies at a speed which is too fast because "it looks funny". Any print would have looked battered after months or years running through projectors, even Citizen Kane after it did repertory and art house cinemas for years. In the pre-home video 70s when you had to go to a repertory cinema to catch any old or classic film, nearly every print looked ropey, not just exploitation films, so for authenticities sake one could add scratches and aspects to any pre-digital film.

"Dirtying up" the image would especially be a shame for exploitation films which feature beautiful cinematography like for instance The Beyond and many other "schlock horror" films which were professionally made and had exploitation auteurs behind them who combined the cheap thrills with poetry. Imagine presenting a film as visually sophisticated as Bava's Blood and Black Lace or or William Huyck's Messiah of Evil deliberately faded and with specks and artificial scratches. It would be cinematic hooliganism.

[MichaelB]

It's also well worth noting that distribution on cheap film stock to cinemas that were less than careful with the prints was hardly the filmmakers' personal preference. Similarly, although Tobe Hooper was delighted that 'Texas Chainsaw 2' was being widely pirated in the UK, that's only because he knew that it was the only way his British fans would get to see the film back then - it absolutely didn't mean that he personally favoured nth-generation VHS bootlegs as his preferred medium.

[nolanoe]

Interesting to hear those opinions.

I agree, mostly. I think problems arise when you get issues as with Suspiria or The Beyond, where the very color or brightness sensibilities of the original work might not represent what the film was probably supposed to look like (but those flaws are not on the end of the labels, mostly, but of bad restoration).

(now this reminded me of Messiah of Evil - and that I missed out on its BD so far - which is a great example of a DVD being bad)

[Lost Highway]

Interesting to hear those opinions.

I agree, mostly. I think problems arise when you get issues as with Suspiria or The Beyond, where the very color or brightness sensibilities of the original work might not represent what the film was probably supposed to look like (but those flaws are not on the end of the labels, mostly, but of bad restoration).

(now this reminded me of Messiah of Evil - and that I missed out on its BD so far - which is a great example of a DVD being bad)

Messiah of Evil is in the public domain, so there were some ropey DVD 4:3 releases around which looked no better than VHS but the Code Red DVD was excellent as is the Blu-ray.

[David M.]

If you want the picture to look crappy, there are any number of tools that you can use at your end to facilitate this.

But I personally have no problem with the film looking as it did when the original cinematographer signed off on it.

Hook the BD player up to the TV using the Composite video connection. You'll be half way there!

[jazzo]

Just to veer off topic a for a second, Messiah of Evil appears to be available from Code Red as of this writing, if anyone still wants the blu-ray.

[nolanoe]

One example that struck me recently was Abel Ferrara's BODY SNATCHERS.

I saw a 35mm copy and - holy cow, was it beautiful. It had a STRONG yellow/golden hue to it, that not only gave the film its autumnal feeling, but made it into a unique viewing experience.

Seeing an HDTV version on TV shortly afterwards... I realized the golden hue was gone (even though it can be found on the DVD edition). It's these instances where I hope the more beautiful print won't turn out damaged.

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital:

However, the main reason to get this disc is the quality of the film itself, a new 2K scan from the original negative that's so vastly superior to any prior home video version they barely even look like the same. The heavy red saturation finally looks like the correct hellish shade it's supposed to be rather than the toned-down orange we've seen before, and the amount of detail and color fidelity is such a vast improvement that anyone left cold by the film in the past would do well to give it another shot here as the enjoyment factor increases tremendously. As usual, the PCM mono track sounds very solid (with optional English subtitles), and the electronic score is sharp enough to drive you to insanity by the end of the film. An essential part of any '70s horror home video library, finally given the treatment it's desperately needed for years.

[David M.]

It actually looks more detailed than those grabs (which are 540p doubled) would suggest

[therewillbeblus]

I keep going into these poorly-received Tobe Hooper films anticipating disaster and coming out impressed, but in this case I think Glenn Kenny and I might be the only two people to love this movie. Sure, it’s complete trash, but Hooper treats trash with a perfect balance of unflinching histrionics and an aesthetically pleasing sense of economy that the antithetical modes don’t offset but amplify one another’s strengths with bold acuity. This is a repugnant film, but I have a hard time comprehending how anyone could dislike this if they like Hooper’s other raw grindhouse schlock. The screams are egregious but they work within the internal logic of unhinged insanity Hooper is crafting - which is so elastic that it’s liberated from any conventions, even the ones his other disinhibited films felt obliged to at least partially fulfill. When the villain gets offed without a blink of stimulated recognition, it’s perversely subversive to the genre’s rules of catharsis and simultaneously the only sensible way to end the film: After this much sustained hysteria, even the movie’s editing technicians are exhausted and numbed to the concept of content amplification and just need to tap out with the characters and audience alike

Oddly enough, I think my least favorite Hooper film is also his most commercially successful: Poltergeist (well, I’m not an alien, but at least to a wider margin of audiences vs Texas Chain Saw). I still like the movie, and the mesh between Hooper and Spielberg’s sensibilities is interesting, but it’s not lost on me that the work where Hooper had to compromise the most, simply due to its inherently collaborative construction between two loud voices, is also his weakest. I thought that maybe his style wouldn’t jive as well taken into the new millennium, but even Toolbox Murders works as an effective pastiche of low budget slashers only updated with modern jargon like “prob” etc. - Hooper inclusively winking for us to join him on a lucid field of pleasures. He doesn’t hide anything and he’s confrontational with his invitations, but in this approach he consistently treats his audience like adults, ironically around juvenile pleasures. Though acknowledging what we want for us when we might be insecure or not even aware of it, and bluntly approving that this is okay within the safe space of a film, is admirable and welcome horror auteur leadership

[knives]

I also love this one which for all its trashy glory shows to me why he was such a great fit for Spielberg or even Ling although I don’t believe he ever did an adaptation. The key character is De Palma regular William Finely and the sympathy for the ugly outsider which recently Stranger Things has played to a certain limit.

[beamish14]

This has always felt like a Tennessee Williams adaptation that just happens to have man-eating crocs in it. I love how truly psychedelic the lighting and set design are in certain scenes

[therewillbeblus]

This has always felt like a Tennessee Williams adaptation

Careful there, this may just be the straw to make domino quit the Internet

[Mr Sausage]

I don’t know. I liked Texas Chainsaw and The Funhouse because they had a rough, lived in quality whose persuasiveness made the jangling lunacy all the more disturbing. Eaten Alive is so fake and set-bound that I found myself disengaged by its attempts to provoke me. Who cares that a scyth-wielding rapist lives in a house on a studio lot and keeps an animatronic alligator? It’s not a lunatic reality existing somewhere in the world, it’s just a film where people scream a lot.

[therewillbeblus]

To clarify, I don't think Hooper is doing the same thing across his works, and I agree that those are richer films (I'm not sure anybody thinks The Funhouse is as intelligent as I do, but we'll see what Tarantino has to say in his book) - Still, he's a master of balance, maintaining a controlled temperament behind the scenes, ironically allowing uncontrolled high-temperature frenzies to succeed as well as they do. I recently watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and absolutely loved it for similar reasons as Eaten Alive; it may not have the same "quality" you aptly reference that the original possesses us with, but it's self-aware of this, and even replicates some set pieces while imbuing them and others with a sense of novelty and creativity and attention that they don't really deserve, but which makes it work as Art. I don't think Eaten Alive is quite as clever or impressive in those respects, but it does match the directorial command. Neither are anything I'd write an essay on or anything though

[colinr0380]

Now LifeForce is the film to write an essay on!